IWC has no jurisdiction over small cetaceans – Snagg

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) does not have any jurisdiction over small cetaceans says the Director of Grenadines Affairs and this country’s Commissioner to the IWC Edwin Snagg.

A cetacean is a whale, dolphin, or porpoise like the black fish/pilot whale which is hunted in Barrouallie.

Snagg was commenting on the call by Executive Director of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Environment Fund (SVGEF) Louise Mitchell for persons involved in fishing aimed at cetaceans and other mammals to transition to whale watching.

Snagg said that the blackfish hunts in Barrouallie are a way of life and enable persons to make a living and converting to whale watching will be problematic for some persons. He added that there is no law against hunting the mammals.

Snagg added that Mitchell knows this so she is attempting to bring the three whales caught in Bequia recently into the Barrouallie blackfish argument, but persons must also know that the whalers in Bequia are doing nothing wrong.

“When Louise talk about whale watching and she is squeezed in a corner…because this is the first time, we have caught three whales in a long long time…she start talking about there is the pilot whale and the dolphins…

“They (whalers) have an entitlement sanctioned by an international body and the vote was 57 to about 4 abstentions to allow SVG to do that (hunt whales),” said Snagg.

He added that persons should be left to practice their culture once they are doing it within the rules.